Became tired of suburban life; the smog, the traffic, the too-close neighbors...

Saturday, June 04, 2005

On A Darker Note...

my postcard- About 12 miles up the hill from here is the small, and I do mean small town of Wilseyville. This is where the infamous Charles Ng and Leonard Lake committed their mass murders, and buried their victims. This happened long before I moved here, in fact I was unaware of the close proximity until a friend remarked upon it.Normally crime is pretty tame in this region. An example of our local police report from the online version of our local paper goes as follows:

12:54 a.m., Wilseyville - Reporting party can hear some kind of screaming between her house and West Point. Possibly a mountain lion. All is quiet on deputy's arrival.

6:54 a.m., West Point - Unpleasant odor in area all night. Call transferred to CDF.

The first report amuses me. Mountain lions are a protected species. This matter should have been reported to The Department of Fish and Game, and they have very specific rules as to when and why they would track down a lion. I do understand the callers fears. During a bout with insomnia early one morning, I heard what sounded like a woman screaming her heart out. By the time I grabbed the gun, I could hear that this woman had traveled quite a distance, still screaming, through thick underbrush. Any human being who could do that wasn't someone I'd particularly need to save! I later learned I was hearing a mountain lion.As to the second item... the Sheriff was called due to a skunk? Looking back at this- that mountain lion was heading toward West Point. There could have been a carcass in the area, although I'd imagine it would take a while for that smell to ensue.Item three is just too damn funny.

9 Comments:

I used to live in a small town where the police blotter was pretty tame. I think one of the funniest stories I ever read in that town's newspaper is that some woman got pissed at her (?)husband/boyfriend and assaulted him with a chili cheese dog. I'm not saying that no one was ever murdered there, but it was definitely not the norm.

We have a fine array of weird police stories. Two in which involve the mayor assaulting a citizen (once with a baseball bat, and another time with a snow shovel I believe). The weirdest however was probably the one that involve a guy who got shot in the leg for throwing a pickle at another guy.

squirl-A chili cheese dog? I wonder if she was charged with attempted diahrrea.

sylvana-Wow, another reason not to get involved in politics... and pickles!

We had a local crime which made it to The Smoking Gun! A woman in San Andreas was arrested and held for stealing a tri-tip from a BBQ. The sheriffs followed the trail of BBQ sauce up to her apartment, and into a cupboard. It turned out she had a long rap sheet, so this wasn't her only crime.

When I told The Hubs you were located between Arnold and Jackson, he assumed it was where those murders took place (Wilseyville). Upon scouring your archives, I found the real name of the place and he knew *exactly* where that was too (although he was a little disappointed you didn't live where Ng and Lake made their name).

Ironically, I'm the one with the morbid fascination with serial killers (not to be one, but to understand what makes them *tick*)